Comelec not allowed to grant overtime pay of teachers serving as poll workers

Comelec headquarters in Intramuros, Manila.

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) cannot grant the overtime (OT) pay of teachers who will serve as election workers pursuant to a memorandum circular.

A Commission on Audit (COA) and Department of Budget and Management memorandum circular states that an OT pay cannot be given to non-Comelec employees.

“Bawal po kasi ang pagbibigay ng overtime sa hindi namin empleyado. Ang mga guro po kasi ay empleyado ng Department of Education, and therefore, hindi po namin pwede mabigyan po ng overtime,” Comelec chairperson George Garcia explained in a Laging Handa public briefing on Friday.

(We cannot give overtime pay to non-employees. Teachers are employees of the Department of Education, and therefore, we cannot give them overtime pay.)

“Kahit po gusto namin magbigay ng OT sure po na i disallow ng COA,” Garcia told INQUIRER.net in a message.

(Even if we want to give them an OT pay, I am sure that the COA will disallow it.)

Despite the prohibition, the commission is looking into increasing the honorarium of poll workers.

Garcia said that the Comelec will find ways to raise the honoraria of election board chairpersons, members, and support staffers to P10,000, P9,000, and P8,000, respectively.

The current honoraria under the Election Service Reform Act of 2016 are P6,000 for election board chairpersons, P5,000 for members, and P4,000 for support staffers.

“Ang sabi po ng ating pangulo, gagawa’t gagawa ng lahat ng pamamaraan, para lamang po kahit paano kung wala man silang tax exemption, ganu’n pa rin at medyo malaki-laki pa rin ang maiuuwi po nila,” said Garcia.

(Our president said that we will look for ways to provide teachers a bigger pay even if they will not be exempted from tax.)

“Kukunin po namin ‘yan sa ating mga savings at ‘yung mga natipid natin du’n sa procurement ng ibang mga kagamitan para sa eleksyon po,” he continued.

(We will source it from our savings from the procurement of election equipment.)

The Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections is slated on October 30.

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JPV